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THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE by William Shakespeare
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
PRIAM King of Troy
His sons:
HECTOR
TROILUS
PARIS
DEIPHOBUS
HELENUS
MARGARELON a bastard son of Priam
Trojan commanders:
AENEAS
ANTENOR
CALCHAS a Trojan priest taking part with the Greeks
PANDARUS uncle to Cressida
AGAMEMNON the Greek general
MENELAUS his brother
Greek commanders:
ACHILLES
AJAX
ULYSSES
NESTOR
DIOMEDES
PATROCLUS
THERSITES a deformed and scurrilous Greek
ALEXANDER servant to Cressida
SERVANT to Troilus
SERVANT to Paris
SERVANT to Diomedes
HELEN wife to Menelaus
ANDROMACHE wife to Hector
CASSANDRA daughter to Priam a prophetess
CRESSIDA daughter to Calchas
Trojan and Greek Soldiers and Attendants
SCENE: Troy and the Greek camp before it
PROLOGUE
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA
In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece
The princes orgulous their high blood chaf'd
Have to the port of Athens sent their ships
Fraught with the ministers and instruments
Of cruel war. Sixty and nine that wore
Their crownets regal from the Athenian bay
Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made
To ransack Troy within whose strong immures
The ravish'd Helen Menelaus' queen
With wanton Paris sleeps--and that's the quarrel.
To Tenedos they come
And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge
Their war-like fraughtage. Now on Dardan plains
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch
Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city
Dardan and Tymbria Ilias Chetas Troien
And Antenorides with massy staples
And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts
Sperr up the sons of Troy.
Now expectation tickling skittish spirits
On one and other side Troyan and Greek
Sets all on hazard. And hither am I come
A prologue arm'd but not in confidence
Of author's pen or actor's voice but suited
In like conditions as our argument
To tell you fair beholders that our play
Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils
Beginning in the middle; starting thence away
To what may be digested in a play.
Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are;
Now good or bad 'tis but the chance of war.
ACT I.
SCENE 1. Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace
[Enter TROILUS armed and PANDARUS.]
TROILUS.
Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again.
Why should I war without the walls of Troy
That find such cruel battle here within?
Each Trojan that is master of his heart
Let him to field; Troilus alas! hath none.
PANDARUS.
Will this gear ne'er be mended?
TROILUS.
The Greeks are strong and skilful to their strength
Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant;
But I am weaker than a woman's tear
Tamer than sleep fonder than ignorance
Less valiant than the virgin in the night
And skilless as unpractis'd infancy.
PANDARUS.
Well I have told you enough of this; for my part I'll not
meddle nor make no further. He that will have a cake out of the
wheat must tarry the grinding.
TROILUS.
Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS.
Ay the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting.
TROILUS.
Have I not tarried?
PANDARUS.
Ay the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening.
TROILUS.
Still have I tarried.
PANDARUS.
Ay to the leavening; but here's yet in the word 'hereafter' the
kneading the making of the cake the heating of the oven and
the baking; nay you must stay the cooling too or you may chance
to burn your lips.
TROILUS.
Patience herself what goddess e'er she be
Doth lesser blench at suff'rance than I do.
At Priam's royal table do I sit;
And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts
So traitor! 'when she comes'! when she is thence?
PANDARUS.
Well she look'd yesternight fairer than ever I saw her
look or any woman else.
TROILUS.
I was about to tell thee: when my heart
As wedged with a sigh would rive in twain
Lest Hector or my father should perceive me
I have as when the sun doth light a storm
Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile.
But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness
Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.
PANDARUS.
An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's well
go to there were no more comparison between the women. But for
my part she is my kinswoman; I would not as they term it
praise her but I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday as
I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but--
TROILUS.
O Pandarus! I tell thee Pandarus
When I do tell thee there my hopes lie drown'd
Reply not in how many fathoms deep
They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad
In Cressid's love. Thou answer'st 'She is fair';
Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart
Her eyes her hair her cheek her gait her voice
Handlest in thy discourse. O! that her hand
In whose comparison all whites are ink
Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure
The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense
Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me
As true thou tell'st me when I say I love her;
But saying thus instead of oil and balm
Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.
PANDARUS.
I speak no more than truth.
TROILUS.
Thou dost not speak so much.
PANDARUS.
Faith I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she is: if
she be fair 'tis the better for her; an she be not she has the
mends in her own hands.
TROILUS.
Good Pandarus! How now Pandarus!
PANDARUS.
I have had my labour for my travail ill thought on of
her and ill thought on of you; gone between and between but
small thanks for my labour.
TROILUS.
What! art thou angry Pandarus? What! with me?
PANDARUS.
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